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Mutually Assured Defense
|- | style="background:#B0C4DE;" align="center" colspan="2"| Background |- | style="background:#DADEE4;" | Stats || Stats - Ranking |- | style="background:#DADEE4;" | Team Color || Blue (optional) |- | style="background:#DADEE4;" | Founded On || December 11, 2006 |- | style="background:#DADEE4;" | Founded By || Eviliza and Cirrus |- | style="background:#DADEE4;" | Ceased To Exist || August 25, 2008 |- | style="background:#DADEE4;" | Important Links || *IRC *Forum/HQ *Charter *Standing Government *Membership Application |- |} Foreword Mutually Assured Defense is a medium-strength Blue team alliance known for non-aggression, per-capita economic strength, and in-character academic excellence. The official acronym, MAD, is the inspiration for the alliance symbol, the mad cow. Unofficially MAD is known as Spongiformia or the Confederation, and its members as Spongiformians. MAD is a low-membership, high-nation-strength alliance, and does not generally actively recruit new members. A significant minority of the Spongiformian population comes from the architecture / urban planning message board SkyscraperPage.com, but MAD is not strictly an "SSP" alliance - only 25% of the top level of government has ties to SkyscraperPage. For most of its early history MAD was dedicated to neutrality, but in February, 2008 the membership voted to amend MAD's governing document, the Charter of Confederation, to permit the signing of military treaties. Government MAD is governed by an appointed body of four Ministers called the Cabinet, who work within the confines of the Charter and whose power is checked in certain situations by an elected Court of three Justices. The Cabinet is made up of the founder of the alliance, Eviliza, plus the heads of MAD's three Ministries - State, Defense and The Interior. Administrative duties are handled by several second-level officers. The Interior The Ministry of The Interior is the domestic arm of MAD's government. It operates several institutions intended to produce and maintain an economically healthy and active population. Among them: *The University of Spongiformia provides MAD's population with economic and military education. *The Bank of Spongiformia supports nation growth with income distribution and grant programs. *The Prion Times is a weekly publication that keeps Spongiformians aware of cyberverse and alliance news. The logos for those institutions are shown below. State and Defense The Ministries of State and Defense are the foreign affairs arms MAD's government. State deals with diplomacy and Defense with military. As a neutral alliance, the cornerstone of MAD's diplomatic policy was the Proclamation of Commitment to Peace, a global -like document open to be signed by all alliances. When MAD emerged from neutrality and began signing military treaties on February 15, 2008, it indefinitely suspended the placement of new signatures on the PCP. MAD has been involved in a number of anti-rogue actions but due to its history as a neutral alliance has not yet been involved in an alliance war, though the MoAD Conflict of August, 2007 brought it to the very brink. MAD remained neutral during Great Wars Two and Three and during the Unjust War. History Early Period MAD was founded on December 11, 2006 when the small, previously independent nations Lizatonia and Malla agreed to band together for protection against rogues. In the following weeks a handful of other small nations joined, but for the time being MAD remained a largely unorganized association. It was during that early unorganized history that the term confederation first appeared, with the implication that member states were independent except for during times of defensive necessity. Though the term is no longer appropriate for MAD's government, it is still used in deference to MAD's heritage. Neutral Period When Great War Two broke out on January 9, 2007, MAD's membership, still in the single digits, had no idea why the powers of the day were fighting, and knew that diminutive proto-Spongiformia would likely be destroyed if the war reached MAD's door. As a result, the nations of MAD agreed that becoming embroiled in the quarrels of others was unnecessary, and for the first time in its history MAD made a conscience decision to adopt a neutral path, though at the time that decision was unofficial, since MAD had no governing document. Everything changed on January 22, 2007 when MAD member nation Weisslandia was attacked by the rogue ThaSmallTuna. The Tuna War was on. Though small as wars go, the conflict solidified MAD's early membership as a cohesive unit and convinced them of the need for more organization. Work began as soon as the war ended, and on February 6 the Charter of Confederation was ratified, including a provision officially codifying MAD as a neutral alliance. Shortly thereafter, in the latter half of February and beginning of March, MAD began expanding at a more brisk pace after Cirrus brought in several new members from the SkyscraperPage message board. For the next year MAD grew peacefully (except for the MoAD Conflict) while the cyberverse raged in often continuous warfare, but by the end of 2007 it was becoming clear that MAD would have to evolve to survive. Post-Neutral Period After the Unjust War of September, 2007, the split MDP web of the cyberverse settled into a nearly unified bloc of surviving alliances, eliminating the most practical reason for continued neutrality. Since MAD had always been neutral by circumstance rather than ideology, by the end of the year MAD's membership began to seriously consider dropping neutrality and signing military treaties. When the prominent neutrals NADC and GPA were attacked on January 26 and February 12, it became clear that life as a neutral alliance was too dangerous, and the decision became easy. Following votes that ironically started before GPA was attacked, on February 15 MAD announced that it amended its Charter and would no longer be a neutral alliance, and that it had signed its first military treaty, an with Echelon. At that time MAD also instituted a series of reforms to its government, in recognition of its larger, more active user base. Merger MAD did not grow as hoped after the changes instituted during the Post-Neutral period, and by summer of 2008 many of the alliance's larger nations, including the highest-ranking members of government, were ready for a change. Soon thereafter merger discussions began with Echelon, and on August 25, 2008, as the War of the Coalition wound down, the merger became official and MAD was absorbed into Echelon. Karma War After merging with Echelon, most of the former MAD government nations quietly retired from public life, with little to no involvement in the larger world of robertopolitics. However, in April, 2009 as word began to spread that a global war was approaching, Cirrus called a private summit of the nation rulers that had been most active in MAD (including nations both inside and outside of Echelon). Summit attendees discussed the coming conflict, with a general consensus emerging that they did not want to support the NPO-led hegemony of which Echelon was a part. Shortly thereafter, arrangements were agreed upon for several of the former MAD nations to leave Echelon legally and join Greenland Republic. With those arrangements in place but not yet carried out, Echelon became embroiled in the rapidly expanding Karma War, resulting in a break-down of the previously agreed-upon deal. Still not wanting to fight for the NPO-led hegemony, on the morning of April 22, 2009 MAD officially split from Echelon and joined Ragnarok, where several former MAD nations fought in the war. Some former MAD nations did remain in Echelon. Category:Alliances Category:Blue team alliances Category:Formerly Neutral Alliances Category:MAD